FAREWELL TO XXX: A LETTER TO THE ECONOMIST (October 3, 2011)

My blog, which started its life as an intellectual journal more than thirty years ago, is divided into yearbooks. For my sins, the yearbooks bear numbers in Roman numerals. As of late, many an aficionado of pornography chances upon my website. I am thus delighted to learn that the World Wide Web now has a new .xxx domain, which is reserved for the global adult entertainment business (”At a XXX-Roads,” October 1, 2011). To me, triple “x” means “thirty.” To my many disappointed visitors, it means something entirely different. And a quick look at my daily Google Analytics reports shows that searches containing “xxx” are my scourge. As my blog is registered under the .org domain, I sincerely hope to be rid of them after a brief period of adjustment to the innovation. Numerous as they are, they will never be my fans. If I occasionally veer into things sexual, which I sometimes do with gusto, pornography is surely not my cup of tea. I am sure I am not alone among bloggers to welcome the new domain and to wish farewell to its eager customers.